Inside the Star

Strong 7.6 quake hits Costa Rica

Power was knocked out across Costa Rica’s capital and phone lines failed after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck near the country’s Pacific coast, triggering tsunami warnings across Central America. One death was reported.

A patient is evacuated from Hospital Monsenor Sanabria following an earthquake in Puntarenas, north of San Jose, Sept. 5.

Published on Wed Sep 05 2012

NOSARA, COSTA RICA—Power was knocked out across Costa Rica’s capital and phone lines failed after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck near the country’s Pacific coast, triggering tsunami warnings across Central America. One death was reported.

Government buildings in San Jose were evacuated and roads and bridges in several parts of the country were damaged, the national emergency commission reported on its website. A 50- year-old woman died from a heart attack during the quake, television channel Teletica said, while a tsunami warning for Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua was cancelled.

The quake struck 140 kilometers west of San Jose at 8:42 a.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It hit a popular tourist and surfing region that is home to hotels owned by Four Seasons Holdings Inc. and Hilton Worldwide Inc. In downtown San Jose, windows rattled, electricity flickered on and off and car alarms rang out in the streets as people ran outside in the quake’s aftermath.

“Central America is a highly seismically-active region,” said John Bellini, a geophysicist at the USGS. “A 7.6 is not a surprise” for the region, he said, adding that in addition to a tsunami there is a risk of landslides.

President Laura Chinchilla was meeting with members of her cabinet in San Jose when the temblor struck and immediately traveled to the country’s emergency operations centre to help oversee the government’s response, the national emergency commission said.

‘Started Off Slowly’

Costa Rica and the rest of Central America are susceptible to earthquakes because of the movement of at least four tectonic plates, including the Cocos and Caribbean plates. The country has suffered at least four quakes of magnitude 6.1 or greater since 1991. A magnitude 6.4 quake near Cartago in 1910 killed 700 people, according to the USGS.

“It started off very slowly, not unlike the smaller earthquakes we have here,” said Eric Turner, a press official at the U.S. Embassy in San Jose. “But it picked up strength and was longer in duration.”

There were no reports of significant damage or injuries at Marriott International Inc.’s properties, said John Wolf, a spokesman for the Bethesda Maryland-based company. Marriott, the largest publicly traded U.S. hotel chain, has six hotels in Costa Rica, according to its website.

Sorya Gaulin, a spokeswoman for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said in an e-mail that her company is monitoring the situation and that customers and guests were safe. Four Seasons has one property on the Papagayo Peninsula.

The country’s largest refinery, Refinadora Costarricense de Petroleo SA, wasn’t damaged by the quake, manager Henry Arias said in a phone interview. Production at the refinery, on the Caribbean coast, has been halted since late last year for an expansion project, Arias said.